Digital User Experience (UX) Professional Review

As a UX apprentice, I often shadow or participate in work that my mentor has. There are rotations through many different roles every couple of months, so it depends on the specialisation of my mentor. I participate in lots of teams meetings that relate to the role that I am shadowing. Many meetings have been set up for the apprentices or other coworkers to build skills. For example, we have meetings where we have to present Powerpoints to help build our speaking and presentation skills. We also have meetings where we learn about certain topics related to the rotation we are on. Currently I am on a User Research rotation so we had a meeting that taught us about how to take good helpful notes during research. There has also been plenty of opportunities given for us to develop our skills. Work gives us User Research course days and access to LinkedIn learning, Uni gives us access to opportunities develop foundational skills (maths, writing etc) as well as access to more niche courses (I am doing a course on Carbon Literacy)

I have developed plenty of skills through this apprenticeship. Foundational skills such as writing and speaking have been built on through plenty of opportunities, as well as the more specialised UX skills such as Figma, User Research and Mural. I also have plenty of opportunties from both the University and my work to participate in courses to help me develop my skills.

I am really enjoying my programme so far. We have plenty of opportunties to participate and contribute to work which I find rewarding. I'm finding UX as a whole an interesting topic, and I am glad I managed to get this opportunity. I'm also really happy with the University aspect, I enjoy being able to be a part of societies and having a student life.

There is definitely a lot of structure in place both at work and University, although I do think there could be some small improvements on the work side. Whilst we do have an apprentice rotation calendar, it is definitely not in detail. I would like if this was in more detail (exact dates, who I'm going to be with etc).

I have lots of support from my employer. I have both a manager and a mentor that I can turn to and who send me plenty of resources and opportunities. I'm comfortable to ask for help when I'm stuck and know that I have people at work who I can turn to when I'm struggling.

There is plenty of help that the University gives me. I have a skills coach who I catch up with every now and then to check my progress which is helpful. I know that I can talk to him if I am unsure of something at University. My current lecturers are also very helpful, although that does depend on the individual lecturer. There is also very clearly marked courses that I can take if I am struggling with a skill provided by the University for topics such as maths or writing.

I think that University allows me to build the foundation skills of UX by providing me with clearly marked and relevant theory for me to study. The coursework also really helps me develop my understanding of certain UX concepts, as I need to understand it to get decent marks. I'm thankful that University gives me very easily accessible, simplified information, I'm not entirely sure how I'd find it if I was trying to teach myself.

At work, I currently plan the social events for the UX apprentices, we've been golfing and out to eat so far. I've been to an apprentice social event through the University which was very fun, I got to talk to the people from the other courses. I am also planning on volunteering at the apprentice fair for BT. It definitely could be better but I do understand as we are not in a proper office (Our full office is still being built)

Yes

I think the support they offer is really helpful to me, they definitely have a good apprenticeship scheme going so far. They have plenty of good benefits that I find helpful (cash back scheme for dentist, glasses etc) The people working here have all been really lovely to me, I haven't had a problem with anyone yet. I really like the hybrid work scheme that I'm offered, I find it incredibly helpful. The temporary office is really nice, clean and spacious.

I applied directly from A-Levels. I think identifying the soft skills you have learnt through subjects or extra curricular activities will be helpful, as you can talk about how you have developed them through your studies. For example, English Language A-Level can be used to emphasise analysis skills and written skills all of which are very helpful for UX. The skills I would try and highlight are: ANY design skills (design process is used a LOT), analytical skills, research skills, speaking/presentation skills (User researchers should eb able to speak to users and also present ideas to stakeholders)